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Ben Reilly
Ben Reilly, born Kaine, is the main protagonist of the series Radioactive Spider-Man. A youthful amnesiac, Ben was discovered (and, later, named) by Seward Trainer at the bottom of a smokestack eleven months after the disappearance of Peter Parker. He uses his newfound spider powers very briefly as the vigilante Scarlet Spider before willingly inheriting the mantle of Spider-Man, hoping to both continue his predecessor's legacy and craft a life for himself. Events surrounding Parker's fate and his past (as well as involvement with the former), however, quickly threaten to derail these plans. While not out Spider-ing, he is tutored by Shirley Washington along with her son Devon at the Daily Grind, though he has also recently resumed schooling at Midtown High with an eye for attending Empire State University upon graduation. He is currently in a romantic relationship with Wanda Maximoff, fighting crime alongside her in her identity as the Scarlet Witch. Appearance Personality A complex individual by any standard, Ben goes through numerous personalities and mentality shifts throughout the course of the series and his life in general. Ben Reilly Civilian As Spider-Man Kaine Original Personality In Reilly's subconscious Initially, Kaine appeared to have vanished entirely, only manifesting as occasional flashes of memory or subconscious reflexes in Ben Reilly's everyday life. However, after numerous events (including Reilly's use of the Knull symbiote and his discovery of his true past), the Kaine personality began to reemerge as a consciousness in its own right. Appearing as a frothy, shadowy figure in Ben's mind and often replacing his reflection or shadow when it wished to communicate with him, it easily declared its intention to reclaim control of their body and supplant or exterminate the Reilly persona. This version of Kaine, seemingly influenced by its interactions with the primordial symbiote, embodied the assassin's worst traits, while also possessing knowledge of all his abilities and skills to a greater extent than Reilly's purely instinctual usage. It initially masqueraded as being entirely beneficial, offering its knowledge and expertise to Spider-Man in exchange for brief periods of control of the body. However, as it gained longer and longer intervals of control and began to abandon asking for permission, it became more insistent and vile, encouraging Ben to give in to his darker (or, from its point of view, more pragmatic) instincts. Eventually, it came to outright asking him to grant it control of its body again and for him to 'disappear'. When he confronted it at his lowest point, Ben found that it was not as evil as it seemed, but was rather overcome with despair at seemingly having the chance for redemption Peter Parker offered it stolen by someone seemingly unrelated, and having sunk back into its old ways a result. Reilly ultimately offered it full control of their body to both save his friends and offer Kaine a chance at the salvation he ultimately wanted. Kaine's consciousness ultimately proved more noble than it seemed, willingly approaching what remained of Reilly's memories and personality and asking for it to reclaim control when faced with the threat of Judas Traveller. Despite this seeming willingness to sacrifice itself, having grown to truly care for New York, its citizens, and its friends, and understanding that it was time for it to make Parker's choice for itself, it still raged one last time against the seeming unfairness of it all, that it had to give itself up. When Ben offered to merge with, rather than replace, it, it reached with shock and slow acceptance, acknowledging once and for all that Reilly was its better half and not a usurper as it had so long asserted. Revived as Spider-Man Fused When the Ben Reilly and Kaine personalities confront each other at the climax of the Judas Traveller crisis, Ben comes to the realization that their conflict stems from, and always has stemmed from, their perception of each other as different individuals in the same body, rather than what they actually were: the same soul, having merely had the chance to walk two different paths. As both reconcile themselves to this, all distinction between them dissolves. Though they operate under the name Ben Reilly from that point forth, Wanda points out that where once they were a soul at conflict with itself, with two personalities in battle, they now appear as a unified whole, combining the best aspects of either personality and effectively becoming the 'ultimate' Ben Reilly/Spider-Man. History Born to kill Ben Reilly began life as Kaine, a child soldier born and raised in Latveria. He never knew his parents, them disappearing (likely killed) before his recruitment into the armies of the warlord Victor Von Doome. He received his name from the man himself, given as a reward for the immense number of successful, high-profile kills (including assassinations) he had undertaken, along with the title of his personal bodyguard and assassin. Renowned among the ranks as one of the most prodigious fighters in their army, Kaine surprised everyone when he rejected Doome's offer to lead his special forces after they conquered the country in Hassenstadt. He had grown weary of killing, slowly sickened by the blood on his hands, and he desired to leave and start a new life for himself. For a time, however, that proved to be difficult: utterly unprepared for the world outside Doome's forces, Kaine was forced to continue to rely on his skills. He often worked as a mercenary for the Assassins Guild, forming a "close, personal realtionship" with its leader, Belladonna Boudreaux, though she also remarked that he was often distant, emotionally-withdrawn, and refused to mingle with his fellows in the organization, or even other wandering killers. He would use the money from his assignments to travel across the world, spending nights scrubbing his flesh raw in the showers of countless hotel rooms, and refusing to close his eyes even to sleep, afraid of seeing the countless bodies of those he had slain reaching out of the darkness towards him. No matter where he went, he could not escape that he feared and hated the most: himself, Kaine the killer. A chance at a new life It was during this time that he was contacted by Norman Osborn, who had, alongside Steward Trainer, Miles Warren, and Jean DeWolff, developed a project to duplicate the powers of the famous Spider-Man. Believing that such a person would need to exist in the years to come, long after the original man's passing, police captain George Stacy had initiated the project with DeWolff and Trainer before his death. Lacking funding as the captain's money was passed to his unknowing daughter Gwen, Osborn had stepped in, on the condition that his head scientist, Warren, be brought onboard the project. Together, the group collaborated to create a recombinant-DNA virus that would provide the test subject with powers similar to the web-slinger's. However, there were numerous complications that claimed the lives of those injected: Warren and Trainer concluded that there was some missing element. Osborn claimed that it likely belonged in Spider-Man himself, and suggested they hire an operative to investigate and uncover it. Unbeknownst to Trainer and DeWolff, however, Osborn was in actuality the supervillain known as the Green Goblin and was manipulating the project through Warren in order to destroy the current Spider-Man and mold his son into his replacement. In so doing, he plotted to mentally break the wall-crawler and, to provide Harry with motivation, die in final battle at his hands. In so doing, he hoped to both create a 'corrupted' Spider-Man to take the place of the old, and forever tarnish the original's reputation. Having encountered Kaine in the past, he hired and tasked the young hitman to stalk and acquire the needed genetic information from the vigilante. In return, he would provide him with enough funds to disappear and start life anew for good. Kaine traveled to New York and, ironically donning a costume vaguely similar to the web-slinger's, hunted him down with all the equipment at his disposal. He managed to track him for quite some time as he fought crime around the city; unexpectedly, Kaine developed a genuine respect and admiration for both Spider-Man's skills and character, wishing deep in his heart that he could somehow use his own abilities to help others in that fashion. He was soon confronted by the vigilante himself, who had sensed his stalker via his preternatural Spider-Sense. However, that same ability also informed him that Kaine meant him no actual harm. Faced (and defeated by, after an attempted fight and escape) with the person who had quickly become his idol, the assassin broke down and confessed his past, current life, and envy of the wall-crawler, concluding by asking for him for help, and, perhaps, guidance. The hero was, unexpectedly, emotionally struck by the young man's plea. As a part of the Goblin's plot, his girlfriend Gwen had recently been murdered on the Brookyln Bridge, where a gathering of his greatest foes had recently assembled to challenge him to battle; the grand centerpiece to Osborn's machinations. Having begun to fall down a darker path due to the recent tragedies in his life, and having resolved to slay the Goblin, he saw hope for redemption of both himself and the assassin in the latter and coerced Kaine to reveal the group's designs to him. The two traveled to the lab where most of the work on the DNA virus had been done, where Spider-Man revealed to Kaine alone his identity as Peter Parker and the incident that had granted him his powers. Believing that the unique type of radiation which the spider had been bombarded with and had been responsible for modifying his DNA was the 'missing piece' the project sought, he made Kaine promise to steal and destroy it in return for helping him find a new life. Spider-Man's last stand and aftermath With that, the two departed, and Spider-Man separated from him in order to go confront the Goblins' forces. Not long after he left, Kaine was contacted by Miles Warren, who relayed new orders from Osborn: in case the wall-crawler proved capable of non-lethally defeating the Sinister Six while surviving, Kaine was to deliver the finishing blow to him and all others present; he offered him a substantial raise to his already-promising due in return. Kaine, though he was able to conceal his involvement with Spider-Man from the doctor, struggled one last time with his nature. Torn and unable to choose between two potential routes to escape his fate, he traveled to the Brookyln Bridge just as the battle reached its peak. Seeing the web-slinger brutally beaten by his foes, already tired from his struggle with Kaine, yet continuing to stand and resume the fight, the assassin's heart was rent one last time. He joined the battle, mortally wounding the Green Goblin with a knife from the shadows before rushing to his hero's aid. He found the vigilante fatally-injured himself, infected with poison from Kraven's claws, his nervous system fried by Electro, and countless more wounds. As Kaine approached and attempted to help him up, however, the hero pushed him away; acknowledging that his number was up, he told the assassin that he would have to carry both their hopes for redemption, now. Adding his greatly-spilled blood to the DNA virus, he injected Kaine with it. As he went into convulsions, the web-slinger left one of his web-shooters as a memento and final message to his chosen successor, the words "with great power, there must come great responsibility" etched on its interior. He flung himself into battle with his nemeses, the battle costing the bridge itself and, seemingly, all those present's lives. The only visible survivor in the aftermath was Kaine, who had gone comatose as the virus rewrote his body from the inside out. Warren, Trainer, and Wolffe arrived on the scene not long after to find him. Warren, speculating that the trauma from the sudden injection would both eradicate his mind and leave his body nigh-inoperable, revealed his allegiance to Osborn and used the authority that came with it to convince Trainer, already disheartened by the amount of lives lost in this project, and DeWolffe to dispose of his body. Reluctantly, they gathered him up, though they were not able to make him relinquish his hold on the web-shooter (a byproduct of his adhesive abilities beginning to manifest). They deposited him within a convenient smokestack, believing that it would eventually cremate him, and went their separate ways, the project dissolving. Only Trainer would remain in the year that followed, attempting to drink himself to death in the vicinity of the place where the final causality had been 'buried'. But Kaine had, in fact, survived: the virus did indeed modify his body, granting him Spider-Man's powers and intellect while fusing his physical traits with those of Peter Parker. The trauma of the sudden change did have an effect on his mind, but it only succeeded in erasing his memory of his past life. In a brief, final moment of lucidity before the changes took full root, as he fell into the smokestack, he used the web-shooter to suspend himself in a cocoon that shielded him from the worst of it, hugging the device like a teddy bear as he fell into a deep coma, in which his transformation was completed. Synopsis Season 1 The Awakening Becoming Spider-Man Confronting the rogues and building a life Season 2 Rise of the Jackal Learning his past Harry Osborn, The Iron Spider Dating the Scarlet Witch Season 3 The Knull symbiote Kaine reemerges Work with the Avengers Dismantling the Great Game The Death of Ben Reilly Season 4 Superior Spider-Man Enemy of the state A life in ruins Judas Traveller emerges Season 5 Reaching his limits One soul, one body, once more New lease on life The final battle Swinging off into the sunset Powers and Abilities Superhuman Powers Natural Abilities Equipment Quotes Gallery Trivia Category:Characters Category:Male Category:Metahumans Category:Superheroes Category:Human